


Way of the Heavenly Fist - Part 6: The River

by Shivaree76



Series: Way of the Heavenly Fist [6]
Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Aftercare, BDSM, Beating, Bondage, Dominance, F/F, Femdom, Fighting, Healing, Martial Arts, Scarification, Spanking, Submission, Violence, Weapons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-22 15:44:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14311980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shivaree76/pseuds/Shivaree76
Summary: With a spirit unburdened by guilt and all doubts and fears exorcised from her mind, Cassandra meets Lady Shiva in an abandoned temple for one last fight. The Way of the Heavenly Fist reaches its ultimate climax as mother and daughter express their deepest desires in a language known only to them.





	Way of the Heavenly Fist - Part 6: The River

**Author's Note:**

> (Well, here we are! Last part of... this. I swear, all I wanted was to delve a bit into Shiva and Cass' relationship while also working out some of my personal hang-ups on Shiva's characterization, both in official comics and fanfiction. But I kept finding new interesting things about them and it all spiraled a bit out of control, I'm afraid. The fact that this last part is, like, 2000+ words longer than the previous one is evidence enough. I do hope you enjoy it anyway, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the end and on the whole story in general. Thank you so much for reading this far!)

            The late noon sun was beating down on Cassandra’s forehead as she climbed her way up the last flight of stone steps to the temple. She wiped the sweat from her brow without stopping. Already she could see the tip of the temple’s roof, a worn-out spot of dull red lost in the lush green tones of the forest. There were colors here that Cassandra had only ever seen in photographs, movies and computer desktops. And there was a music to it, too. A chorus of birds and insects and other animals that filled the roving air with a softly deafening symphony. It was all around her, at times far away and at others right under her nose. At first it’d been a harrowing sound that tensed her up to no end. But as she wandered deeper into the forest, Cassandra grew to enjoy the song’s stillness, and its oddly pleasant sensation like everything was in its place. Everything was where it had to be. Even the temple. Even herself.

            A pale scent of Jazmin snuck inside Cassandra’s nose and anticipation began to swell inside her heart. She could feel her presence in the air, carried by that song of natural perfection that filled her ears. Of course, that could’ve been just her excitement talking, but Cassandra couldn’t really remember ever feeling closer to another human being than she did to her mother. Stephanie, Barbara, Bruce, Alfred, Kate… even her father, they’d all seen the void inside her, the emptiness that gnawed at her will, and they’d all tried to fill it with something. Sometimes with heroism, or sacrifice, or just a normal life. Always, in some level, with love. For that, she could never truly resent them.

            But Lady Shiva was different. She, too, could see the void inside her daughter, and she had shown Cassandra how to love it instead. How to embrace and cherish that emptiness, the primordial state of nothing from which all sprung forth, and let it dissolve all her troubles and worries. Even her own need for Shiva had faded, or rather, changed. Her absence no longer frustrated Cassandra. The desire to be with her, though still nestled deep inside her heart, no longer ached or kept her awake at nights. And when she remembered her, she did so fondly, even the parts that others would have found disturbing. Shiva had accepted her for all she was at a time when she herself couldn’t. And for that, even though she’d likely kill her if she said it, Cassandra would forever be grateful.

            With delightfully morbid thoughts of being killed by her mother again, Cassandra reached the top of the stairs and entered the temple’s courtyard. The place was as ancient as it was barren. If anyone had lived there in the last four centuries or so, Cassandra reckoned, they’d done an admirable job of hiding it, comparable only to the job nature had done of reclaiming it.

            A massive oak tree towered over the temple’s main building, its vast branches quietly swallowing its moss-covered walls. A hole in the back of the temple was now home to a charming fried egg tree, and mangroves surrounded the entire place like they were staging the world’s most tranquil siege. Had she come there for any other reason, Cassandra would’ve relaxed immediately. But the door of the main temple opened with a creak and her heart all but stopped at the sight of the woman who had already stopped it more than once.

            Lady Shiva emerged from the temple like an apparition, both at one and out of place with her surroundings. Her bright rose silk robe challenged the beauty of the flowers around her, but her posture was calm and confident as she walked through the courtyard. For a moment, she seemed to Cassandra like a hermit of old -- like the temple, the courtyard, the forest and the world all belonged to her and she belonged to them. But as she drew near her, she recognized the warm and elegant smile of her mother, and the closeness she felt was made manifest.

            “It’s beautiful,” Cassandra remarked, about nothing and everything.

            “Maybe,” Shiva answered, and then asked: “Why?”

            Cassandra turned from her mother to take everything in. They were standing in the middle of the courtyard, on a solid floor of carved and bleached stone that had somehow managed to remain comfortably flat over the years. Spring was coming to an end, with the first pangs of summer already blowing a warm wind through the trees that had devoured half the temple. The interior, which Cassandra could gleam through large holes in the walls, was dark and foreboding, the light only shining into one half of it while the other remained obscured.

            “The temple,” she finally said, “is being swallowed by the tree. It doesn’t fight the tree. And the tree has no need to fight. They both know the temple’s time has come. The tree doesn’t force, and the temple doesn’t resist. In this moment, they exist together. And together, they are beautiful.”

            Cassandra finished and turned awkwardly to her mother, feeling her cheeks flush a pale red. She wasn’t even sure what she’d meant by all that. The words had come out of nowhere, almost like they didn’t belong to her, but she felt compelled to say them nonetheless.

            “You have a keen eye. But that was hardly ever in question. It is your hands I am interested in right now.”

            Cassandra’s body stiffened for a second, instinctively getting ready to receive whatever it was Shiva had for her. It was a broom. One of two she was holding, just behind her back. She pushed one onto Cassandra’s body and playfully tapped her forehead with its smooth wooden tip.

            “After all, you would not expect me to clean this place up all by myself, would you?”

* * *

 

            They had been at it for about half an hour, working in complete silence, each focused on their half of the courtyard’s floor. Cleared of the dust and leaves, the smooth white stone almost reflected the sun beaming down on it. It was an odd sight, although maybe not as odd as seeing Lady Shiva with a broom in her hands, gently cleaning an ancient temple like a monk in training. She had a way to make even this mundane task take on an ethereal pulchritude of its own, and Cassandra did find herself a fair bit enthralled by her mother’s soft movements and the flow of her robe, like a swarm of rose petals in the wind. But it was still really funny. All Shiva needed was the white apron and frilly skirt, Cassandra thought, and the mental image that formed inside her head took root and had her biting her lip in no time.

            Trying to chase her fantasies away, Cassandra concentrated on finishing her sweeping, cleaning the same spot of floor almost a dozen times until she felt blinded by the sun’s light bouncing off it.

            “Are you done, or were you hoping to sweep until you hit earth?”

            Cassandra gulped at the sound of her mother teasing her, her voice much closer than she figured it’d be. She turned around slowly and, just as Shiva was coming into her sight, got another broom tap on her forehead. Without a hint of malice on her lips, Shiva smiled at her daughter’s absence of mind and increasingly red cheeks as she backed off.

            “Ah, daughter. Thinking filthy thoughts again, I see,” she said, throwing her broom into the mangrove shrubs. “But that is why we cleaned this floor. There is no fun to be had in sullying an already dirty place.”

            “Right,” Cassandra answered. She never questioned the enjoyment her mother got from their encounters, but they’d always carried a tinge of learning with them. Introspection and self-discovery followed in her wake, as she never destroyed Cassandra just for the sadistic glee of it. There was always a point to her “lessons”, inadequate as it was to call them that. So it was strange to hear her speak without any apparent intention beyond amusement. It aroused more than just Cassandra’s curiosity.

            “After all we have gone through, and all you have grown, I figured you deserved something special,” Shiva continued as she drew closer to her daughter, her voice becoming deeper and more seductive by the letter, scrambling Cassandra’s brain. She noticed that, at some point during their sweeping, her mother had found the time to tape her fists. Or were they taped from the start? “But first, you should get comfortable.”

            With an obedient nod, Cassandra turned to drop the broom outside the stone square and began to strip. Ever since that first night in Gotham, she found few things as exciting as taking her clothes off for her mother. To bare herself in front of someone who knew her inside and out, who had given and taken her life several times now, who could break her and heal her with equal ease, it was all part of an intimacy that Cassandra shared with nobody else. No symbols of duty, no clothes from a life that never sat entirely well with her, just her own body, offered as it was to the one woman who she knew would accept it without reservations. And who’d treat it just the way she wanted.

            She was down to her underwear and tank top when Cassandra realized she had her back turned to Shiva. This was a chance that was just too good to miss. After all, her mother never had any problems with teasing Cassandra as mercilessly as she fought her. Swallowing her nerves, Cassandra hooked the sides of her top and pulled it off her in a single motion. The walk up had been long and arduous, so Cassandra enjoyed feeling the late spring breeze on her sweating back and bare chest almost as much as she enjoyed the thrill of toying, even if just a little, with Shiva.

            She didn’t even bother giving her mother a sideways glance or anything. She just closed her eyes, snuck her thumbs inside the corners of her panties, and slowly peeled them off her legs, playfully letting them drop from her index finger when she was done. Taking a deep breath, Cassandra steadied herself and turned around, spreading her legs and resting one hand on her hips, feeding off all the confidence she could find within herself. That confidence abandoned her the moment she saw her mother undoing the belt of her robe with a pleased grin.

            Like with the sweeping, Lady Shiva turned the simple act of removing her clothes into art. Her fingers, long and skilled and full of purpose, made the soft silk came to life, crafting what looked like a short but poignant dance between two lovers as they parted ways. With a sensuous circular shoulder movement, she broke their embrace and let the robe slide off her frame. It fell dead to the floor, killed the moment it left Shiva’s skin. It was nothing now, just a lifeless piece of cloth, while Shiva was everything.

            She’d seen it half a dozen times already, and explored it almost as many, but Cassandra couldn’t stop her heart from beating harder at the sight of Shiva’s naked body. Her tall, lithe frame covered in finely-cut muscles all wrapped up in the most flawless skin Cassandra had ever had the pleasure of tasting was always an intimidating sight. Especially now, bathed as it was in a splendid natural light. In her presence she felt smaller, humbled, an imperfect sack of cracked bones and rough scars shaped like a tiny little girl. And although there had always been a delicious element of dominance in her mother choosing to fight her more or less fully-clothed, her nude magnificence was more than enough to make Cassandra feel weak at the knees.

            “Do you remember,” Shiva asked, cracking her knuckles, “what you tried to do to me in the cage, my daughter?”

            She remembered alright. It’d been a desperate move, and it hadn’t paid off, but Cassandra could tell it had greatly amused her mother. And considering what she did because of it, maybe it actually had worked out. In a way.

            “Yes,” she nodded.

            “Good. Come here and try again,” Shiva said, and held her hand out with a smile.

            It was hard for Cassandra to tell if it was an order or an offer, but it was certainly irresistible. Two seconds later she was walking up to her mother, eyeing her nervously for any possible signs of betrayal. There were none she could find. Shiva was utterly relaxed, as placid and open as the forest that surrounded them. A part of Cassandra felt the slightest bit disappointed in that. Back in the cage, she hadn’t fought to win as much as she’d fought to prolong the fight, to rile her mother up so she would take her to pieces slow and deliciously. Had Shiva mistaken her lust for determination? Was she trying to use Cassandra to challenge herself? Had her own mother misread her intentions? As her hand reached Shiva’s toned chest and looked for the nerve cluster just below her surprisingly generous bust, Cassandra wondered if she really wanted this.

            So strong was her concentration and so clouded with questions her mind, that Cassandra didn’t even feel her mother’s fingers gently brushing her body just below her small breasts. And when she closed her fist above Shiva’s pressure point, so did her mother over Cassandra’s, and suddenly she realized exactly what was happening.

            “To the death,” Shiva whispered, “or climax. Whichever comes first.”

            “Don’t you mean whoever?”

            The two shared a knowing smirk and synchronized their breathing.

            “I shall enjoy this, my daughter.”

            “Not as much as me.”

            With only the smallest turn of their waists and slightest thrust of their arms, each woman punched the same spot at the same time with the same force. And for the first time in history, hidden away in the woods, without even a single soul to bear witness, the Heavenly Fist was used by two people on each other.

            A shockwave went off between the two women, pushing them apart and playing havoc with their balance. Cassandra felt her body immediately grow hotter, blood pumping through her veins at an accelerating pace and limbs tingling excitedly as the reversed qi energy flowed through her meridians. The colors around her grew deeper and warmer, the music of the forest clamoring louder in her ears. Over it, she heard a noise like a long, low sigh and looked up to see her mother arching her back, stretching every inch of her exquisite torso. And for a moment, Cassandra could swear Shiva was shaking just a little.

            Bouncing back from her arc, Shiva settled into a long, wide guard with a crooked smile. Her arms looked loose and her legs a bit unsteady, and Cassandra figured that, for once, she actually held the upper hand in this fight. She was, after all, significantly more accustomed to fighting under the effects of the Heavenly Fist than her mother was. Spurred forward by her perceived advantage, Cassandra jumped on the offensive, the warm stone floor under her feet feeling like a loving massage as she took two hard steps towards her mother and lunged forward with a flying punch.

            But even coping with her twisted nerve endings, Shiva still saw the attack coming a mile away. Ducking out of the way of Cassandra’s fist, Shiva rolled past her daughter as she landed, leaving her to punch nothing but air. Cassandra turned herself around with her guard up just in time to see Shiva leap out of the ground like a spring, her powerful legs stretching out as she spun back towards her daughter in an incredibly acrobatic butterfly kick. Momentarily dazed by Shiva’s flashy but superb display, Cassandra slackened her guard, which was easily swatted away by the first part of the kick. Half a second later, the second caught her right in the cheek.

            “Guhh!” Cassandra grunted as her legs were almost taken from under her by the impact. Relishing the pleasure that throbbed on the side of her face, Cassandra wobbled around the courtyard for a moment to get her focus back. She recovered it just in time to see Shiva dash towards her, throwing a huge left cross that plowed through her faltering guard and made her stumble forward. Stepping further in, Shiva launched a heavy uppercut that caught her daughter right in the pit of her stomach, making her gag loudly. A rising kick to the chin straightened Cassandra right up, giving her the tiniest and most tantalizing glimpse of her mother’s inner thighs yet. It only lasted for an instant before Shiva followed it with a roundhouse that nearly sent Cassandra flying through the air.

            There was a savagery to her mother’s attacks that Cassandra was not used to seeing so early. At times she seemed to be throwing mad haymakers with no rhyme or reason, wild and wide punches that on any other day Cassandra could’ve dodged… maybe not easily, since they were still inhumanly fast, but certainly easier than most of her mother’s attacks. But as her defenses crumbled and more and more blows came crashing down on her face, jaw and chest, Cassandra quickly found herself reeling, swimming in pleasure as her mother took her apart. If not with precision, she was certainly doing it with authority.

            Left wide open by a sudden side kick to the gut, Cassandra took two huge hooks to the face. The first only bruised her, but the second cut a small gash under her eye, at the top of her cheek. Clearly excited by the sight of blood, Shiva stepped in with the speed of a shark and the smile of an even bigger shark. Close enough for Cassandra to feel her warm breath on her bruises, Shiva unleashed a cruel barrage of blows all across her daughter's body, each one setting off new blasts of pleasure that only got stronger and stronger. They, too, were sloppier and more uneven than the usual punches that Shiva used to beat Cassandra into submission, but they were also a lot stiffer as well. In a moment of clarity amidst the overwhelming bliss of being soundly pummeled, Cassandra remembered that the Heavenly Fist didn't work just for blows received. After all, nobody, not even Lady Shiva, could throw punches like those without hurting their hands, even if only a little. And with her pain receptors reversed, Shiva must’ve been getting far more from those strikes than the mere satisfaction of getting her daughter in the wrong end of a dominating beatdown once again.

            With half-closed, punch-drunk eyes, Cassandra peered into her mother's own gaze, and at once all her suspicions were confirmed. There was a wild fire in Shiva’s eyes, a lustful flame so much different from the dull, controlled embers that usually occupied them. As the blows continued to rain, jerking Cassandra's punished body from side to side, she felt that flame surrounding her, slowly burning her being down, threatening to turn her into ashes. And she relished it.

            After a dozen more unanswered punches that nearly drove Cassandra to her knees, Shiva seemed uncharacteristically tired. She was panting noticeably and beads of sweat were forming on her forehead, gently cascading down to her full lips which were still cracking a devious smile. Cassandra could only half see her, drained as she was, but she could feel the exertion and almost taste the effort her mother was making to keep herself from getting too excited. She was edging herself on Cassandra, delighting on the bolts of joy that flew from her fists to her core every time she hit her, and if she had slowed down her assault, it was only to keep herself from going too far. Urging her on, Cassandra lifted her arms to at least try to look like she was about to fight back, and Shiva responded with a sharp yell and an even sharper uppercut that plowed into her daughter's sternum.

            "Kahh!" Cassandra spat out, along with a short shower of spit that landed on Shiva's shoulder, and almost immediately went limp around her arm. The fist stayed on her, pretty much the only thing keeping her upright, until Shiva stepped back and removed it as if she were pulling a sword out of an impaled enemy. Cassandra fell to her knees with a gasp and her forehead soon crashed into the ground, further rattling her already battered brain and staining the ground red. Lying there, curled up into a ball with her butt sticking out and her face kissing the stone floor, utterly humiliated, Cassandra trembled on the edge of an orgasm. She was going to lose, and she was going to lose badly, but she was well on her way past caring.

            Groping her weakened body with trembling hands, Cassandra brought her fingers close to her drenched sex and let out a shrill whimper as they grazed her clitoris. She could feel the drool running from her mouth on her cheek, mixing with her own sweat and a string of blood that'd begun to leak out of her, and that only made her want to explore her lower wetness even further. But just as she was about to plunge her fingers inside of her, she felt a force crushing down on their tips, pining them and her whole hand down on the floor with an ecstatic sensation that almost made her come right then and there.

            "Pitiful," her mother growled as she stepped on the bit of fingers she could see poking from between Cassandra’s legs. "Would you really end it all so quickly? My dear daughter, I have hardly even begun to break you."

            Shiva's voice had taken in a raw, unhinged tone that sent ripples of damp fear across Cassandra's back. Without letting go of her daughter's fingers, she bent down and reached around Cassandra's back to grab her forearms. Once she'd found them and clamped them in with hands that felt like a pair of iron vises, Shiva lifted her foot and pulled back on her daughter's arms, forcing her into an upright kneeling position. And when she was there, she placed one stiff knee right in the middle of Cassandra's toned back, and slowly began to pull on her arms with just the right amount of force to get a rousing cry of endless joy from her daughter's slack-jawed mouth.

            If Cassandra had retained enough awareness through the storm of pleasure that raged through her arms all the way to her shoulder blades, she would've been impressed by how Shiva seemed to instinctively know the precise moment to stop pulling and give her daughter a moment to breathe, in order to keep her always inches away from her orgasm. But in her current state, all she could do was ride the ecstasy that washed over her every time she was stretched to her literal breaking point, and steal as much air as her overworked lungs would hold when Shiva eased off. Three, four, five times Shiva applied the sadistic hold, and every time Cassandra screamed louder, howling madly into the sun and scaring away the few birds that remained in the treetops. Her arms could've been popped clean off her shoulders, even ripped out of her body right then and she wouldn't have minded -- if anything, she would've welcomed it. A pain of that magnitude would've surely made her come four times over. But Shiva had made her intentions clear. This was going to last exactly as long as she so desired, and not one second less.

            Sensing her daughter going limp in her hands, Shiva gave her back one last tug, then stepped on it with her foot and kicked her down. Cassandra fell unceremoniously, sprawled on stone slick with her own sweat and saliva, seeing twinkling stars in the edges of her hazy view. Desperate to get herself off, she tried to move her hands only to find her entire body was one big dead weight. She couldn't even move her legs or her hips, so numb and unresponsive her limbs had become. To be so close and so far filled her with aching, but resigned despair. So when Shiva turned Cassandra onto her back with her foot, the first thing she saw were tears rolling down her daughter's crystallized eyes.

            "You are not getting off so easily, Cassandra," Shiva taunted her as she stepped roughly on her naked breasts, one stiff nipple digging into her sole, "but perhaps I will."

            From the depths of near unconsciousness, Cassandra watched in slow motion as Shiva twisted her leg, kneading her smashed chest under her foot and making her groan pathetically, but also giving her a full view of her naked crotch. Her mother's fluids were pouring out from inside her labia, giving it a glistening sheen that made Cassandra's mouth water. She wanted nothing more in life than to get up, to shove her face between her mother's legs, and simply drown in her sweet juices. But even if Shiva hadn't been stepping on her, Cassandra doubted she had enough strength left to even move her neck. And so she stayed there, spread-eagled and helpless, eaten away by desire as she watched her mother begin to rub herself off.

            Towering over her defeated daughter, Shiva cooed and moaned with delight as her fingers ran up and down her lips. She could feel Cassandra's heart pounding at its bruised ribcage under her foot, and see the lewd thirst in her eyes, and even when she finally slid her index and middle finger inside of her, that miserable look of dejection on her daughter's face remained the strongest turn-on. She needed to be careful, especially with her qi amplifying her pleasure tenfold, to not go overboard and just come on her. She still had so much planned for the afternoon. When she felt her back stiffening and her toes beginning to shake, Shiva stopped, gave Cassandra a grin, and stepped off her.

            "Not yet," she mouthed as she walked away, trying to catch her breath. "Not just yet."

            Sprawled out on the ground, Cassandra’s senses begrudgingly returned to her. Shiva’s expert teasing had seemingly fooled her body into thinking she’d already had an orgasm, and so she found herself basking in a fake afterglow that pulled her further from the edge with every passing second. She could still feel the throbbing pleasure emanating from her bruised skin and pounded muscles, but the climax she’d felt so dangerously close to subsided with frustrating quickness. She pushed herself off the ground and saw her mother pacing about almost nervously, like she was trying to walk off her arousal. There was a mad energy in her eyes that she seemed to be beaming directly into her daughter’s body, bringing life back to her feeble limbs.

            It was a hard, slow climb, and there were a few stumbles along the way, but Cassandra eventually managed to get back on her feet. Tingling and groggy, she strode forward to meet her mother, and with a coarse grunt threw a straight punch that caught Shiva right in her face. But she didn’t move. Her head was tossed aside a bit but the rest of her body remained upright, not even bothering to roll with it. Pressing on, more out of lingering instincts than anything else, Cassandra threw another punch, a cross to her mother’s cheek that impacted just as easily. But the result was still the same. With only one difference: Shiva’s smile had grown wider.

            Whether Cassandra’s fists had really lost all strength or her mother was just taking a chance to enjoy the pleasure that crawled through her with every blow, she couldn’t say. She just continued to throw her hands at her, her weakened knuckles bouncing off harmlessly off Shiva’s finely-toned body. The most she got out of her were a few tiny, mocking moans when she started working her stomach, but her abs felt harder than mountains and just as unmovable. And soon enough, an exhausted Cassandra gently collapsed on Shiva’s indomitable frame, her hands aching with delight and her chest heaving rapidly as she sucked wind. Relaxing her muscles, Shiva embraced her daughter, wrapping her arms around her hanging head and letting her rest on her shoulder.

            “My dear daughter,” Shiva whispered in Cassandra’s ear, “bless your fighting spirit. But now it is my turn.” And after taking a step back, she jumped forward and cannonballed a stiff knee into Cassandra’s soft gut.

            Bent forward and lifted clean off her feet by the brutal blow, Cassandra belted out a loud, choked scream as her eyes rolled up and her body went completely limp. She would’ve crumbled to the ground again, but before her toes touched the stone Shiva had already pounded a second knee into her body, holding her by the head in a Muay Thai clinch. Immobilized and defenseless, Cassandra took her punishment gleefully, gasping at every new crushing strike and spitting blood once her mouth finally ran dry.

            The droplets of red falling on her chest aroused Shiva even further, and during a break between her stiff knee blows she swung one of her arms around Cassandra’s neck to catch her in a standing guillotine hold similar to the one she’d trapped her in during their cage fight. But now they were both upright, and soon Shiva returned to beating Cassandra’s guts out while also using her arm to crush her windpipe, effectively stopping any air whatsoever from entering her punished lungs. It didn’t take long for Cassandra’s vision to start going black again, and the only thing that kept her conscious was the hot sensation between her legs that exploded with lewd intensity every time Shiva kneed her tortured frame.

            She was close again. Maybe even closer than before. But she had to hang on or risk getting knocked out before she could come. And so, Cassandra made a heroic effort to stay awake through the brutal battering and keep herself from being overwhelmed by the crashing waves of pleasure that battered her psyche. She tried to yell and flailed her drooping arms around, doing everything she could to stay conscious. And in her desperation, Cassandra didn’t even notice when one of her hands slapped something soft yet firm until she heard the resounding clap.

            Shiva stopped kneeing Cassandra. She stopped doing anything really, other than holding onto her. Air swooped into the younger woman’s lungs and a shot of oxygenated blood rushed to her brain, making her instantly aware of what she had just done. Her heart, already pumping away at a frantic pace, pounded inside her ribcage until she could feel it in her bones, excited beyond measure not just by the disrespect that Cassandra had accidentally visited on her mother, but by the anticipation of how Shiva was going to respond. The answer came swiftly, as an angered hand suddenly grabbed Cassandra’s hair and tugged roughly on it, bringing her face to face with an amusingly flustered Lady Shiva.

            “Now,” she started, and took a deep breath before cracking an awkward smile that Cassandra shot right back at her, “you are just begging for it.”

            If they had stayed like that for a few seconds more, Cassandra was sure one of them was going to start laughing. Probably both. But Shiva wasted no time enacting her revenge. Still holding onto Cassandra’s head, she threw her down into her bended knee, smashing her yielding midsection with a sickening thud. Cassandra gasped and gargled a few globs of blood down onto the floor, and then she hung in there, boneless and spent, waiting for her mother’s retaliation.

            It didn’t take too long. Cocking her arm back as far as it’d go, Shiva delivered a sloppy but explosive open palm slap that cracked across Cassandra’s right butt cheek with a crude sound. Even cruder was Cassandra’s moan of ecstasy as the effects of the slap echoed through her body, sending sweet joyful pangs up her spine and down her legs. And that was just the first one. Two more slaps tore into her ass, and then two more, and then two more, until she simply lost count and track of the world. All she could do was hang in there and twitch madly at every new spank, mouth agape and tongue dangling like a dog receiving a treat from her master.

            The lewd slapping sounds of her mother’s palm bruising her butt filled the courtyard and lost themselves in the woods. Idly, Cassandra wondered how far they’d travel before fading away in the stillness of the forest. Looking up through tear-stained eyes, Cassandra saw the colors of the trees, branches, flowers and leaves all blend and merge into an impressionist haze of pure beauty. The world was dissolving around her, like the heat of her own body was melting everything, and she was melting with it. The thundering claps that shook her to the core did nothing to the trees. The flowers watched impartially as Cassandra was further humiliated. Nature didn’t care, but it didn’t interrupt either. Everything remained as it was, as it should be, all things in their rightful place. Even herself.

            Utterly lost to absolute pleasure, Cassandra was quickly reduced to a wet writhing mess of a little girl, weeping with delight as her ass was spanked raw into ten shades of purple and red. Hot juices flew freely down her thighs, past her knees and into the floor, mingling with her sweat along the way. And she could feel her mind going along with them. Her last conscious thoughts were centered on how much of a lucky hit it’d been. Offending Shiva like that had clearly thrown her off the rails, and if Cassandra could just ride it out, she’d soon be coming all over her mother’s hand before she could stop. She didn’t even have to do anything, just lie there drooling and let the exhilarating humiliation of it all push her over the edge.

            But Shiva was not nearly as distracted as Cassandra thought. Even though she was sorely tempted by the stinging pleasure that covered her hand like a glove with every spank, Shiva retained enough awareness to see through her daughter’s masterplan. And just when she was about to deliver what was sure to be that last, orgasmic slap, she stopped. Maybe it was hearing Cassandra’s breath go faster, or maybe it was the way her moans were getting shorter and whinier. Or maybe, just maybe, Shiva had somehow learned how to read her mind. But whatever the reason, she’d stopped, leaving her daughter limping on her knee, writhing and shaking her tenderized butt in silent distress. An exasperated groan finally crawled out of Cassandra’s dry throat but fell on intentionally deaf ears.

            Once she was sure her daughter had calmed down a little, Shiva resumed her teasing, this time brushing two of her fingertips across Cassandra’s obscenely moist sex. Her daughter shivered and moaned intensely at her touch, and tried to move her hips to bring herself even closer to her mother’s fingers, but her body remained unresponsive. And so she endured another round of merciless edging, with Shiva carefully tracing up and down her wet lips but never entering her or coming close to her clit, a maddening exercise that destroyed what little strength Cassandra had left with cruel, methodical glee. She wanted to give up, to surrender completely and do whatever Shiva wanted of her if she would just let her come already. But her voice was lost somewhere in her aching guts and her limbs hung dead from her spent carcass. She took it all, not because she wanted to or even because she could, but because there was nothing else she could do.

            Sensing Cassandra’s submission, Shiva felt her own excitement rising to critical levels. A white haze began to inch around the sides of her vision and both sets of her lips were damp and warm. She stopped rubbing Cassandra and unceremoniously dropped her to the ground, letting her daughter slump down onto her back, barely conscious. She was tempted to trample her again, to feel her squirming under her foot once more. But after teasing her so much, Shiva was certain even the slightest brush against her daughter’s bruised and hypersensitive skin could make her climax. Steadying her breath, Shiva turned around to once more give Cassandra room to recover, when she suddenly felt something tug weakly at her legs. She stopped and looked back and found herself staring right into the cloudy, wet eyes and quivering mouth of her daughter as she held onto her calves like they were a lifesaver.

            “Please…” she pleaded to her mother, “I give… I s-surrender. Please, let me… come.”

            Cassandra was slumped on her side, having tried and failed to roll onto her stomach. Her arms were slack and weak and her grip nonexistent. Shiva could’ve just walked away from it without any effort at all. But the vision of her daughter so thoroughly destroyed inside and out, submitting completely to her mercy, now literally begging for her to finish it, held Shiva tighter than any chains ever could. Cassandra looked wretched and miserable, a spent heap of bruised flesh bleeding from tiny cuts across her face and skin, but underneath it all, Shiva reckoned she’d never seen her happier. And thought of a way to make her even more so.

            Without a word, Shiva gave Cassandra a sharp kick to the face, flipping her on her back again. Cassandra whimpered at the impact and lolled spread-eagled on the floor, gasping for air. All she could see was the burning mass of the sun up in the sky, bathing her with rays as unforgiving as the punches that had brought her to this pitiful state. Nature remained impassive to her plight, to this oasis of violence that had sprung, red and terrible, within its tranquil bosom. There was nobody to judge her here, no friends to worry about her, no strangers disgusted by the slaughter, no enemies pleased with the way things were turning out to be.

            And although Cassandra had found it more than exciting to taste the fear of an entire crowd as they watched her be brutalized, there was an intimacy to this solitude that she relished in. The sun’s lack of interest as it shone the same light as always on her destroyed body felt like a comfortable blanket. A looming shadow suddenly blocked out that light, but in her blissful stupor, Cassandra couldn’t recognize the towering form of her mother standing over her until she sat down.

            “Owww,” Cassandra whined as Shiva mounted her and balled up her taped fists, slick with the younger girl’s sweat and blood. Her mother’s weight stamped down on her punished lower abdomen and in the center of that crushing pressure she felt something hot moistening her muscles like a kiss.

            “I shall end you now,” Shiva said, holding her daughter’s chin in one hand. “Prepare.”

            And before Cassandra could find a way to thank her, Shiva’s first punch came crashing down right between her breasts. Blood erupted from her mouth and stained her mother’s gorgeous face, and her whole body quivered like in a seizure at the savage impact. Two smaller, faster jabs squashed Cassandra’s tits, her stiff nipples flaring up with delight and her back arching upwards, as if daring Shiva to do that again. Which she did, unleashing a lightning-fast volley of punches all across her daughter’s chest that Cassandra couldn’t even see coming. All she could feel was the orgasmic pleasure that poured down from the heavens like rain, pounding wet moans out of her parted lips and making her body shake uncontrollably. And when Shiva stopped the beatdown to deliver two massive hooks that snapped Cassandra’s head to her sides, splattering more blood and spit over the now messy white stone, the tingling coming from her hips told her this was it.

            But Shiva still had one more surprise left. Forewarned by the way her daughter was trembling, she put her hands on the ground besides her face and lifted one leg like she was about to do a press-up over Cassandra’s yielding body. Instead, she leaned down and gave her daughter a deep, dominating kiss right in her lips, and Cassandra felt her soul being sucked out of her body as those first triumphant, climactic pangs began to rock her through and through. She closed her eyes and sucked in as much air as her nostrils could let in and imagined a tidal wave of pure concentrated joy bearing down on her.

            And just as that wave came crashing down on Cassandra, so did Shiva’s stiff knee come crashing down between her spread legs.

            Cassandra screamed into her mother’s mouth as her eyes went white and her nerves want haywire. It felt like coming twice at the same time -- like two orgasms piled on top of each other, tearing Cassandra apart. Her arms and legs shot up as if pulled by invisible strings, fingers and toes curling and stretching in all directions, captured in the chaotic throes of an unimaginable climax. Losing all control, Cassandra ejaculated violently on her mother’s knee, soaking it in juices that spread all the way to her thigh. She was coming and going, darkness covering her vision and life ebbing away from her body as it finally limped down to the ground. Cassandra lost consciousness so swiftly that she wasn’t even able to tell her mother was having an orgasm of her own on top of her. The last thing she felt was Shiva’s quivering lips parting from hers, and a sweet aroma of Jazmin gently ushering her to sleep.

* * *

 

            In her dream, Cassandra was floating down a river. Or perhaps she was the river. It was barely a river anyway -- more like a narrow, tiny stream that meandered down a winding valley, so long and twisted that she thought it’d never end. She worried it’d just run dry eventually and Cassandra would end up buried in the mud, alone and forgotten. But the tiny stream took another turn and Cassandra floated gently into another river, one that was much wider and bigger and teemed with life just below its surface. It flowed slower than the tiny stream, but it had no curves, no turns, no twists whatsoever. Just a single straight run, mighty and unstoppable, without any hurry nor care. Cassandra felt herself becoming one with the river, carried by its gentle waters towards an ocean vaster than anything she could imagine. And as she flowed into that endless blue horizon, she thought she heard a song calling out to her from far beyond the pale line.

* * *

 

            She awoke on the steps of the temple. The sun had come down from its peak but there was no way to tell how long it’d been. Her elbows ached and there was a small trail of thin black spots behind her, which meant she’d been crawling in her sleep, towards the ruined building. There was something there she wanted to see, and just as she started to wonder what, she heard a hummed song coming from inside. It sounded familiar. It sounded beautiful. Holding onto a rotten old banister, Cassandra pulled herself up with a harsh grunt and walked up the steps as fast as her wrecked body would allow. She knew exactly what was inside. And she needed to see her.

            Inside the temple it was dark and musty. Two faded pillars supported the remains of the ruined roof, while an altar rested silently at the end of the main hall. The wooden floor creaked under Cassandra’s feet as she stepped inside and her eyes needed a moment to adapt to the darkness. Somewhere in that black void, a shadow moved and a bright orange flame lit up. The shadow glided from place to place, lighting huge red candles that burned intensely in the dark, pulling Cassandra in. As she awkwardly stumbled forward on heavy feet fueled by an agitated heart, the shadow turned to see her, and the flames seemed to flutter and bow to her as they reflected off her clothes and illuminated her harrowing smile.

            “Come on in, daughter,” Lady Shiva commanded. “I have prepared everything for you.”

            She took a seat on a chair that looked much newer and more elegant than anything else in the temple, and crossed her legs with a disarming motion. Her body, now perfectly calm and showing no lingering effects of the Heavenly Fist, was wrapped in another long black and red sleeveless qipao that hugged her body with relatable jealousy. Something was different about this one, however. The material glistened wildly under the candle lights, but it wasn’t silk, nor satin. And as her eyes were drawn towards her mother’s toned legs, Cassandra noticed the cut of this qipao seemed to be sporting a small but shiny metal zipper. Amused by her daughter’s befuddlement, Shiva crossed her legs again, and the heavy rumble of stretched rubber made Cassandra’s bruised eyes open wide as her mind finally found the word she’d been looking for.

            “I see you like it. Good. You will like this even more.”

            With a nonchalant flick of her wrist, Shiva directed her daughter’s attention to the altar, and Cassandra was hit with a rush of indescribable excitement that almost floored her. A tall wall made of crisscrossed iron beams had been set there, and all across its surface, suspended from tiny hooks, were a dozen or more different weapons, hanging like tools on a mechanic’s garage. Cassandra only managed to recognize the general shape of one or two of them before Shiva walked into her view, terrible and imposing. Without breaking eye contact, she reached back and pulled something from the wall: it was one of the brooms they’d used to sweep the courtyard floor. Shiva brought it to the fore, and with a snapping twist of her hand pulled out the head of the broom, leaving only a long, polished staff. She twirled it around a few times as she approached Cassandra, then gently brought it to her daughter’s face, pressing its tip against the crimson cut in her cheek.

            “Shall we begin?”

* * *

 

            In the end, Shiva had to tie Cassandra up to the pillar. After attacking her with only two weapons, the staff and a tonfa, the girl simply couldn’t stand up any more. She’d tried, of course, even using a few sneaking branches of the tree to prop herself up, but it was useless. So Shiva unwrapped her fists like they were presents and hung Cassandra up by the wrists and ankles with the tape, spreading her daughter in an X over the ancient red wood which she’d taken the trouble to polish beforehand. She’d had a suspicion something like this would happen. And when she was done, she still had enough tape left for a makeshift gag that she secured around Cassandra’s gaping mouth. Shiva tied the tape into a series of tight knots that ensured it bit nicely into Cassandra’s skin, with less roughness than normal rope but every bit as taut. Once she was satisfied with her work, Shiva walked back to the altar, picked a new tool, and went back to work on her subjugated and grateful daughter.

            Cassandra was all but gone. She didn’t know where she was, how long they’d been at it, or even her own name. She couldn’t even tell if the Heavenly Fist was still coursing through her, or if its effects had expired, or if Shiva had triggered it again at some forgotten point. Pain and pleasure had lost all meaning, long since merged into one single delicious feeling that covered every inch of Cassandra’s brutalized body as her mother used it to try out all these wonderful weapons. She’d smashed her breasts with escrima sticks, crushed her stomach with melon hammers, torn open new wounds across her frame with a chain whip and very nearly choked the life out of her with a three sectioned staff in ways that made her wish she could give Stephanie some lessons.

            But it was the nunchaku that Cassandra really fell in love with. Their thick, glossy wood and polished chain reflected the flames of the burning candles beautifully, making their light dance as Shiva twirled them around with majestic proficiency. The sound they made as they flew through the air felt like music, ruled by a steady beat of sickening wet thuds as they crashed against Cassandra’s squirming body. She’d already climaxed two times since being tied up, but it only took a couple of spins for her to start shaking her thighs and thrusting her hips, hypnotized by the weapon’s dizzying speed and stunned by its power.

            Again and again it plowed into her, bruising already damaged skin and beating choked whines from Cassandra’s gagged, drooling mouth. Her numb arms and heaving chest bounced with every blow, dropping a heavy rain of sweat down onto the wooden floor. Cassandra cocked her head back, slamming it against the pillar, and felt herself about to reach a new climax. Sensing the same, Shiva pushed her latex-wrapped body onto Cassandra’s faltering form and began to roughly rub one of the nunchaku’s sticks against her daughter’s drenched pussy. The result was immediate, as Cassandra tensed up like a bowstring and her eyes rolled to white. If her feet could’ve touched the ground, she would’ve been standing on tiptoes.

            As it was, all Cassandra could do was weep and cry out into the gag as Shiva inserted the thick rod inside of her. It thrusted in with humiliating ease, Cassandra’s exceedingly lubricated vagina yielding immediately to its advance. Soon Shiva was sliding the weapon up and down, soaking it in her daughter’s fluids and making her jump and fall with every move. With her thumb circling Cassandra’s engorged clitoris and the rest of her fingers firmly grasping the bit of stick that her pussy wouldn’t swallow, Shiva quickly had the younger girl clenching her fists and curling her toes as she was brought to the edge of another demolishing orgasm. With cruel intentions, Shiva twisted the nunchaku a few times inside of her daughter, then suddenly shifted her grip and grabbed the opposite end to slam it forcefully onto Cassandra’s mons with a sickening thud.

            The feeling of having her tenderized flesh being crushed between the two pieces of wood was too much for Cassandra. She came on the spot, screaming into her mother’s tape and weeping openly. Her salty tears dribbled onto the wounds on her face, setting them on fire. Shiva’s brutality had caught her unaware. There really seemed to be no end to the tortures she had devised for her daughter, all of them bearing the bitterly addictive tang of mortification. Once she was sure Cassandra’s orgasm was over, Shiva grabbed the dangling free end of the nunchaku and gave it a rough tug, pulling it out of her aching vagina. And as if to prove her daughter’s thoughts right, she hit Cassandra right in the chin with a stick-full soaked in her own cum.

            Degraded beyond measure, Cassandra flopped on her restraints and thought she was going to fall unconscious again. But the shadows that surrounded her view were suddenly severed by a silver light that cut through the darkness. With one last effort she opened her eyes, and found herself staring right into the wide, sharp blade of an exquisite butterfly sword. Shiva was behind it, holding it up to her daughter’s face with burning eyes, and Cassandra shook with trepidation as she slowly lowered the sword and pressed its sterling edge onto her flesh, right under her chest.

            The cut was shallow and ultimately harmless, but Cassandra felt it parting her skin and could almost taste the blood that began to softly cascade from the wound in the back of her throat. It was warm and thick and she followed it mentally as it poured down past her chest, onto her abs and waist, branching along the way like lightning in a storm. She held her breath all the way through, her heartbeat slowing down to a cold crawl, and for a moment it seemed she was going to faint. But Shiva removed the blade from her skin and Cassandra coughed coarsely through the tape wrapped in her mouth, sweating from every pore.

            “And to think,” Shiva laughed, “that you wanted some mutant shark woman to do this to you.”

            Shiva repeated the process two more times in different spots, each one driving Cassandra closer and closer to that final blackout. One that she wondered if she’d even be able to wake up from. How much longer would it take for her to bleed out? How many more cuts was her mother planning to make? How many new scars would she have tomorrow, if there was even to be a tomorrow? A new kind of fear blossomed inside Cassandra’s nearly-exploded heart.

            But despite her sudden bloodlust, Shiva remained acutely aware of her daughter’s state. There was no hate in her cuts, no anger or resentment. She approached hurting her daughter like she approached everything in life: with a twisted sense of artful expression. In Shiva’s hands, Cassandra felt like a canvas, one upon which many had left their mark already, both inside and out, but none had treated quite the way she had. In a way, it belonged to her now, and only to her. She’d made it her own, and in doing so, liberated what laid beneath rather than painting over it. The wounds she’d beaten and scraped and cut into her didn’t just let out streams of blood, but revealed a part of Cassandra’s being that now felt just as alive and valid as her sense of duty, or sacrifice. It was finally able to breathe now, and Cassandra was breathing with it.

            This same deep knowledge of her daughter’s being also told Shiva that she couldn’t push her too far, however. To take her life, when she had finally learned to accept all facets of it, now that would’ve been truly, unforgivably evil. After the third cut, she backed off, ostensibly to clean her sword, but really just to give Cassandra a moment to recover. She still had one last thing to give her, after all.

            With a sudden dash, Shiva pinned Cassandra further into the pillar with her left forearm. She seemed poised to stab her and spill more than just her blood, but instead, Shiva just pressed the tip of the blade against a small area to the left of Cassandra’s ruined abs, right above her waist. Wielding it like a painter’s brush, Shiva drew a diagonal line across Cassandra’s skin, then turned directions and drew another, and finished it with a third line, carving a simplified S on her daughter’s flesh. The wound was just deep enough to give her a new scar and to send shockwaves of pain across her body, but it didn’t bleed quite as profusely as the rest. It was more than just three cuts. It was a mark.

            “There. Perhaps this will remind you of me, the next time you decide to act the fool.”

            And turning the sword around in her hand, Shiva punched Cassandra right in the wound with its brass hand guard, like a blacksmith hammering a red-hot piece of iron into shape. And her daughter’s world went black.

* * *

 

            The sun was coming down as the two women rested on the steps of the temple. Cassandra was fast asleep, her head laid down on Shiva’s lap, snuggling comfortably against the delicate silk of her robes. With a warm smile across her face, Shiva looked at her daughter’s calm and peaceful expression and ran her fingers through her dirty, sweaty hair. She’d bandaged her wounds the best she could, which was nothing to scoff at, but she also knew that the comfort she could read in her daughter’s mouth and closed eyes came from somewhere else.

            “My daughter. Please forgive your mother for lying to you. The truth is, I do want something from you, Cassandra: this. This moment. Now and forever.”

            She knew her daughter couldn’t hear her confession, but as she caressed the crown of her head, Shiva hoped her heart could.

            “To see you thusly, at peace with yourself, free of mind and light of heart, this is all I ever want from you. This world asks so much of you, Cassandra. And I know you can never refuse. I know you cannot turn your back on its woes. This, too, is your way.”

            A cool breeze made Cassandra shiver in her sleep, and Shiva brought her closer, taking her into her arms.

            “But in this world, I am still your mother. You are still my daughter. We are mother and daughter, forever. And as long as this body of mine draws breath, know that there will always be a place for you, in this world and all worlds, where you can be all you may desire to be.”

            The sun finally hid behind the trees, its last rays disappearing into the void like a falling curtain.

            “I love you, daughter of my heart.”

            “Mmm,” Cassandra stirred. “Mmmv yoo too… mom.”

            And with a light chuckle, she went back to sleep, safe and sound.

* * *

 

                                                                                                             **THE END**


End file.
